Gyūdon (牛丼)

Ah, soy sauce and sugar: what a perfect combination. With a bit of sesame oil and garlic, they form the base of many Korean dishes. But in 牛丼(gyūdon)--usually translated, especially by Yoshinoya, as "beef bowl"--the additions of sake and mirin give the sauce a distinctly Japanese flavor. Not really a stir-fry--more of a braise, really--it's a quick and satisfying dish.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe card from Co-op Kobe, our local supermarket chain. The original can be viewed here. They claim it serves four; I cut down the amount of beef, increased the vegetables, and found that it made enough for two adults and a child.

GYŪDON (牛丼)

150g thinly sliced beef
1/4 small white onion, sliced thinly
1/4 carrot, cut into small sticks
8-10 green beans, cut in half
2 thin slices of ginger, cut into matchsticks

Sauce:
3 tbsp water
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sake
3 tbsp mirin
2 tsp sugar

Steamed rice
Pickled ginger (梅酢しょうが)

1. Slice the beef into small, bite-sized pieces, roughly 2cm long. Prepare the vegetables, ensuring that they are of similar size so they'll cook equally.

2. Prepare the sauce and put in a small saucepan. Add the vegetables (except the ginger), and cook gently over a medium heat for a few minutes until slightly soft. Add the meat and ginger and continue to cook until beef changes color. Some of the sauce will be absorbed by the beef, but the mixture should still be fairly saucy.

3. Place steamed rice into bowls (丼) and pour the beef and vegetables over the top.

4. Serve with plenty of pickled ginger as a topping.

To really make this a full meal (as you would get in a fast food shop in Japan), serve with miso soup (みそ汁) and a small bowl of tofu topped with ginger, green onions and soy sauce.

The variations here are endless: replace the green beans and carrots with mushrooms or a green vegetable (leafy ones are particularly good); peppers, either red or yellow, add a nice splash. 

Oyako-don [Chicken-and-Egg On Rice]

One of the greatest things I've discovered in Japan is Japanese home-style cooking: not the stuff you find in Japanese restaurants outside of Japan, but the things that get eaten every day. There are so many wonderful dishes to explore, and this is one of my favorites.

This is what's called a donburi dish: a bowl of rice topped with something that gets mixed into the rice. There are a number of dishes that are similar, especially in Japanese fast food restaurants. And why not? They're quick to prepare, flavorful, and quite filling.

Another category this dish fits into is tamago-toji, which literally means 'bound with egg'. In this version, the egg mixture (which is seasoned predominantly with soy sauce and sugar) holds together small pieces of chicken and slices of onion. The egg is added at the last minute and is just barely simmered; most restaurants serve it while it's still a little undercooked. Once it's mixed with the hot rice, it finishes cooking but is still quite fresh-tasting. This combination of egg and chicken gives the dish it's odd name: "parent-and-child donburi".

OYAKO-DON adapted from Recipes of Japanese Cooking by Yuko Fujita & NAVI INTERNATIONAL

makes one serving

1 bowl of steamed white rice

50g of chicken thighs, diced into small pieces

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 of a small onion, sliced

2 or 3 stalks of mitsuba

Sauce:

35ml of dashi (or water with a small shake of dashi powder)

1 tbsp sake

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp mirin

1-1/4 tbsp soy sauce

1. Trim off any excess fat from the chicken thigh, remove the skin, and cut into very small cubes. Peel the onions and slice very thinly. Cut the mitsuba--including the stems--into pieces about 2-3 cm long. [Mitsuba is not unlike fresh corriander, which would make an interesting substitute.]

2. Mix together the ingredients for the sauce and place into a small frying pan. [In Japan, an oyako-nabe is used: it's essential a very small frying pan with an angled handle. The angle of the handle makes it easier to pour the contents over the bowl of rice. See an image of one here.]

3. Put a portion of hot rice into a donburi bowl. Any deep, steep-sided bowl will work.

4. Put the frying pan with the sauce over a medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Stir gently to make sure the sugar dissolves fully, and then add the chicken and onion slices and simmer briefly. One the chicken looks mostly cooked through, gently pour the beaten eggs over the top. Pour in a circular spiral, starting at the outside and swirling to the center of the pan. Cover (although I rarely do), and shake the pan gently to evenly distribute the egg. Don't cook for too long: 30 seconds is about all it takes to just set the eggs. Some people like their eggs even runnier, while others like them more cooked. Adjust the time to suit your taste, but it shouldn't take more than a minute or so.

5. Carefully pour the contents of the frying pan over the rice in the donburi bowl, trying not to get rice stuck to the bottom of the frying pan. Scatter some of the mitsuba over the top, shake on a little shichimi powder, and serve immediately.

Notes:

• I really love this dish on its own with just a bowl of miso shiru and a bit of pickle, but lots of restaurants will also pair it with a bowl of udon.
• Other vegetables can also be added with the chicken and onion: small mushrooms (like shijimi or shiitake) are quite nice.

Miso Yakisoba

I've been on a bit of a Japanese food kick again lately. This happens every now and again, but I'm not sure why I lose interest in cooking this kind of food at home.

This time, my interest got reignited by picking up a cooking magazine. Well, it's probably more akin to a "woman's" magazine--the first 15 pages or so are filled with recipes, while the rest of the magazine shows the latest in (comfortable, down-to-earth) women's fashion and laundry tips. (Not to mention all the ads for feminine hygiene products.) But you can't go wrong with ¥290 for some recipes, even if they're all in Japanese!

Actually, what I really love about these recipes is that they're often straight-forward, tasty home-style Japanese meals: quick stir-fries, noodle dishes, seasonal veggies--even desserts and fusion-type dishes.

This recipe for yakisoba (fried noodles) comes from a magazine I was looking at while at the pharmacy today, waiting for my daughter's medicine to be prepared. I secretly snapped a pic with my phone, but the resulting image was nearly unreadable. Still, I could make out the ingredients list, and that's about all I need to test-drive a new recipe!

MISO YAKISOBA

1 180g pack of fresh yakisoba noodles (I use the ones marked 中華 [chuuka], Japanese style Chinese)

1 spring onion, sliced on the diagonal

50g ground pork

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/2 tbsp of sesame oil

Miso Sauce

1-1/2 tbsp miso

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp sake

1/2 tsp sugar

Combine the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside for now.

Place the cold noodles in a bowl and toss with about a small amount of sake. Pull the noodles apart as you get the noodles slightly wet with the alcohol, and then heat quickly (about 30 seconds) in the microwave. [I'm not too sure what this step is supposed to do, but tossing the noodles with the alcohol is a nice way to get them separated.]

Heat a medium-sized frying pan over medium heat and add the sesame oil. Toss in the minced garlic and fry quickly, just enough to bring out the aroma. Take the pan off the heat and add the miso sauce--be careful, it may spit at you. Cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn or stick, and then add the meat. Keep stirring to break up the meat, and cook until no longer pink.

Toss the heated noodles into the pan and stir aggressively to coat the noodles in the sauce. Fry for a few minutes to heat through, and then add the sliced onions.

Serve immediately.

Gong Bao Chicken

Filled my lunch box with this morning: made it last night and then tucked it away in the fridge. Served with a side of dry-fried eggplant and yellow peppers.

Gong Bao Chicken
Adapted from Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop

Serves one with a veggie side dish and white rice.

150g boneless chicken breast
1 big clove of garlic, minced or crushed (about 1-1/2 tsp)
1-1/2 tsp of minced fresh ginger
2 green onions, white part only chopped into small pieces
1 tbsp vegetable oil
a big handful of dried red chiles
1/2 tsp whole Sichuan peppercorns
1/3 cup roasted unsalted peanuts

MARINADE
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp sake or rice wine
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tbsp water

SAUCE
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Chinkiang or black Chinese vinegar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp water or chicken stock

1. Cut the chicken into small cubes, about 1cm on each side. Place in a small bowl and add the marinade, mixing thoroughly. Set aside as you prepare the other ingredients.

2. If you like, remove the seeds from the dried chiles by snipping off the stem end and carefully pouring out the seeds. This may only be necessary if you're planning on eating the chiles in the final dish--I don't eat them, so I leave the chiles whole.

3. Stir the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.

4. Heat the oil in wok or frying pan over high heat. When the oil is hot, toss in the chiles and the Sichuan peppercorns. Make sure the fan above your cooker is on, as the chiles can smoke a bit. Stir-fry just long enough for the chiles to crisp a bit. Don't let them get too dark.

5. Add the chicken cubes and toss quickly. Once the chicken has lost its pink color, add the minced garlic, ginger, and green onions. Continue to cook for a few minutes; make sure the chicken is cooked all the way through by cutting through one of the larger pieces.

6. Stir the sauce in the small bowl and quickly add to the chicken in the pan. Stir to coat the chicken pieces thoroughly. Once the sauce is thick and shiny, add the peanuts, stir quickly to coat, and then serve.

Lithiuanian Coffee Cake

This is the cake that my mom recently sent to us: she went down to Claire's in New Haven and them box up a whole cake--which she then shipped to us in Austin! I was so unbelievably shocked and moved by this present.

Although I'm usually a big fan of chocolate cake, there's something about this rich, dense cake that is satisfying beyond description. This is one sensational cake.

Claire's Lithuanian Coffee Cake
adapted from Claire's Corner Copia Cookbook

¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ground coffee
¼ cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup raisins
½ c (1 stick) butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp brewed coffee, chilled
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 low-fat sour cream
2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Prepare the filling by combining the filling ingredients in a bowl. Stir to combine well. Set aside. Preheat the over to 350F (180C) degrees. For the cake, cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, using a hand mixer on medium speed for 45 seconds. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs, and beat for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the coffee, vanilla extract, and sour cream. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, until well creamed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

In a separate mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Pour the creamed mixture over the top of the flour mixture, scraping the bowl. well. Mix on low speed for 45 seconds just to combine, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Prepare a small bundt pan (8-10 cup pan), either by thoroughly spraying with nonstick cooking spray or greasing with shortening and flouring the pan. Pour in half the batter. Sprinkle half the filling evenly over the top of the batter. Pour the remaining batter evenly over the filling. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the batter from the bowl and smooth the batter. Sprinkle the remaining filling over the batter.

Bake in the center of the oven for 55 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a plate.

Penne with Tomatoes, Eggplant and Mozzarella

Tonight we dive into one of Jamie Oliver's books for a staple recipe. This has become our default pasta dish, as it's quick, tasty and simple to throw together.

Penne with Tomatoes, Eggplant and Mozzarella
adapted from Jamie's Dinners by Jamie Oliver

Serves 2 adults and 2 kids

225g - 250g Japanese eggplant (two medium-sized)
olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 400g can of plum tomatoes
1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
big handful of fresh basil, leaves ripped and stalks sliced
2 tbsp heavy cream (optional)
250g penne
100g fresh mozzarella

Dice the eggplant into 2cm cubes. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat, add a good amount of olive oil, and add eggplant once the oil is hot. Salt lightly and stir often until the eggplant turns slightly golden. You may need to add a little more oil.

Add the onions and garlic and continue to cook until the onions take on a little color. Sprinkle in the balsamic vinegar, stirring quickly. Put in the canned tomatoes and stir around as the tomatoes break up. Season carefully with salt and pepper. Toss in the basil stalks and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the tomatoes have broken up and become saucy. Add the cream if you like and turn the heat down to low.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to the boil and salt. Toss in the pasta and cook until just al dente. Drain the cooked pasta, return it to the pot and add a splash of olive oil. Stir in the tomato sauce. Tear up the basil leaves and the mozzarella, add to the pasta, and stir just enough to combine. Serve as soon as possible so that the cheese stays nice and tender.

Okonomiyaki

I'm a little intimidated by Japanese food, or at least by the thought of preparing Japanese food at home. I've got quite a few cookbooks--some of them very good--but I've never been very confident about piecing together the right components to make a good meal. So most of the Japanese cooking I do at home is quite simple (like tonight's meal) or an attempt to replicate a meal I had in a restaurant.

Tonight we had okonomiyaki, which often gets called Japanese pancakes or (shudder) Japanese pizza. (I hate calling anything that lacks cheese and tomato sauce "pizza".) It's basically a savory pancake batter filled with cabbage and whatever else you like (the name translates as "as you like") and topped with a rich sauce, fish flakes, and mayonnaise.

The recipe I use is for a Kansai version of okonomiyaki and comes from our local supermarket, Co-op. I collect recipe cards from them nearly every week, and although my kanji skills are pretty damn weak, I can usually parse out the ingredient list and get the basic gist of the technique section. So here's my attempt to translate one of Co-op's recipes.

The amounts listed here are for each serving. I tripled the amounts here to feed two adults and two kids.

Okonomiyaki
50g flour
1 tsp ground sesame seeds
1/4 tsp salt
40ml milk
1 egg
1 or 2 green onions, sliced
100g cabbage, sliced thinly
2 or 3 strips of bacon (or other fatty cut of pork)

Toppings:
Okonomiyaki sauce
Katsuobushi flakes
Aonori powder
Mayonnaise

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Beat together the milk and egg, and then combine with the dry ingredients. Add the chopped cabbage and green onions and stir together.

Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan. Add the batter and form into a round pancake-shape. Lay strips of bacon on top. Once the first side is browned, flip over and cook second side as well.

Remove from pan and place on a plate. Brush on as much okonomiyaki sauce as you like (be careful, it can get overpowering pretty quickly), decorate with thin lines of mayonnaise, and sprinkle a generous amount of katusobushi over the top. Finally, dust a small amount of powdered nori over the top.